Wolfman Update From Comic-Con

Rick Baker, Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro were in attendance to talk about The Wolfman remake.

The panel started out with just Rick Baker but then he introduced Emily and Benicio. The film is a Victorian-era period piece very much in line with the original film. Baker stated that he doesn’t usually actively pursue jobs but when he heard about this one he went out of his way to make sure he was the guy doing the makeup effects for the film.

He thought it would be more appropriate to go the route of “real” makeup effects instead of CGI, although he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with CGI per se. But considering the era the film takes place in and that the primary character is a wolfMAN that it would be better to actually have an actor wearing the makeup instead of running around with those little white balls for CGI/camera tracking on his face.

They showed the crowd what looked to be a Red Band or unrestricted trailer for the film that went over very well with the crowd. The Wolfman is definitely a period piece not only in timeframe but in style of photography – it looks like it may not suffer from MTV-style jagged, quick-cut filming technique.

The trailer was quite gruesome in places and when asked whether the film would be rated R Baker said he didn’t know but based on what we just saw it certainly looked like it might be.

The werewolf was shown in the film and looked very good, with a hunchback and razor sharp claws.

The film is meant to be an homage to the original in that they used practical makeup effects wherever possible and having it take place in the late 1800s instead of modern day.

Having Del Toro in the film may actually be a decent draw for this – up until now I was thinking there wasn’t very much interest in the film. Of course there’s still a long way to go until it’s released next February.